Fantasy on a Gaelic Hymnsong

David Holsinger

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General Info

Year: 1999
Duration: c. 5:30
Difficulty: IV (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: TRN Music
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $90.00 | Score Only (print) - $12.00

Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute
Oboe
Bassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
E-flat Alto Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Cornet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III

(percussion detail desired)

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

This rhythmically exciting work is based on the gentle Gaelic melody known to most as Morning has Broken, but after a brief expressive introduction, all gentleness is left behind! Holsinger spends the rest of the piece moving through an interesting series of modulations while pitting different instrumental choirs against each other in a duple vs. triple contest. The result is a sense of unceasing rhythmic vitality held together by the ever-present and familiar melodic motif.

- Program Note from publisher

Commissioned by the Danville High School Concert Band, Danville, Illinois, Chuck Hess, Director of Bands

- Program Note from score

One of my earliest recollections growing up in the Hardin Methodist Church was that wonderful Sunday when the new red hymnals arrived. For as long as I could remember we always sang out of ragged and worn black hymnals that I was sure had been purchased in my grandfather's lifetime. What intrigued me the most as a young musician was that this new hymnal contained a rather large number of "modern" sounding songs. I knew these new songs must be good and radical because, even with all the diversity and progressive harmonies these songs displayed, our choir leader refused to sing them because "they sounded strange." Several of the new songs weren't even written in four-part harmony, supposedly to be sung in unison to a "kinda-like-pop-music-accompaniment" ... which, of course, occasionally forced the choir leader to burst forth with a disparaging discourse on how the "Hymnal Committee" (somewhere out There in Methodist Official-Land) had certainly lost their senses and wasted a whole lot of paper on a bunch of "awful" songs unfit to sing in the Lord's House!

Well, I thought a lot of them were "cool", especially my favorite melody, Morning has Broken ... a refrain that has remained a favorite for years. Twenty-some years later, I KNEW the song was cool, when a recording artist named Cat Stevens used the song on his very best album (my opinion ...)."Cool" or inspirational, here is that melody I've always wished was mine! I hope you enjoy this Gaelic fantasy.

- Program Note by composer

Media

Audio: Reference recording. Concordia University of River Forest Wind Symphony (Richard Fisher, conductor)
Audio CD: Rutgers Wind Ensemble (William Berz, conductor) - 2006

State Ratings

Alabama: Class BB
Louisiana: III
North Carolina: IV
Tennessee: V
Virginia: V

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

Concordia University (Irvine, Calif.) Wind Orchestra (Jeff Held, conductor) – 9 November 2019
Lutheran High School South (St. Louis, Mo.) Wind Symphony (Matthew C. Janssen, conductor) – 27 March 2019
Dalton/Whitfield Community Band (Tunnel Hill, Ga.) (George “Smitty” Barnett, conductor) – 12 November 2018
Lee University (Cleveland, Tenn.) Wind Ensemble (David Holsinger, conductor) – 11 October 2016
Encore Concert Band (Mokena, Ill.) (Bill Schuetter, conductor) – 1 May 2016
Rockwood (Mo.) All-District Honor Band (Curran Prendergast, conductor) – 21 November 2015

Works for Winds by This Composer

Abram’s Pursuit (1998)
Adagio (2000)
The Adventures of Kid Cam, the Rocketman! (2014)
American Faces (1996)
Ancient Dances (2020)
The Armies of the Omnipresent Otserf (1981)
Army Ants March and Boogie (2005)
At the Strongholds of En Gedi (1996)
Ballet Exaltare (1999)
Ballet Sacra (1990)
Battle Music (1990)
A Call to Celebration (2012)
Canticles! (2001)
The Case of the Mysterious Stranger (1990)
The Chase (2003)
A Childhood Hymn (as arranger) (1862/1991)
City Symphony
- Cityscape I (Festive Hours Neon Night) (2001)
- Cityscape II (Lonely Hours Anguished Night) (2004)
- Cityscape III (Morning Hours Salvation Light) (2008)
The Cluster Bluster Fluster March (1991)
Connacht Rhapsody (2017)
Consider the Uncommon Man (1992)
Deborah's Triumph/Jael's Revenge (2016)
Deerpath Dances (1996)
Divertimented Dances (2006)
The Easter Symphony (1986-1997)
Elegy on an American Folk Tune (2006)
Elegy on an Evening Hymn (2013)
Every Morning New (2002)
Falcon Attack! (2002)
Fanfare for Brass and Timpani (2003)
Fanfare for Such a Time as This (2007)
Fanfare for the Glorious Naycart (2001)
Fantasy on a Gaelic Hymnsong (1999)
Fantasy on Old Hundred (2019)
Festiva Jubiloso (2000)
Festival Music for a Silver Celebration
Fort Canterbury March (1989)
The Gathering of the Ranks at Hebron (1988)
Gears Pulleys Chains (2006)
Gmyway’s Revenge! (1994)
Graysondance (1993)
Gypsydance (1994)
Havendance (1985)
The Helm Toccata (1991)
Hero Music (2005)
Homage: Three Tapestries (1999)
Hopak Raskolniki (1980)
If You Must Doodle, Doodle Somewhere Else (1990)
In Praise of Gentle Pioneers (1996)
In the Spring at the Time When Kings Go Off to War (1991)
A Jolly Walk in Hibbertland (1991)
Kaylen Dreaming (2006)
Kansas City Dances (1978)
L'Arco della Vita (2021)
Lake Canterbury Regatta (1993)
Last Run (2020)
A Little Adventure Music (2002)
Little Fantasy on an American Hymn (2009)
A Little Mystery Music (1996)
Liturgical Dances (1984)
The Maelstrom (2009)
The March of the Combat Patrol (1991)
March of the Grand High Poobah (2006)
March on a Russian Hymnsong (2003)
Mobbusters! (1994)
Nilesdance (1987)
On a Childhood Sunday Song (2004)
On a Hymnsong of Lowell Mason (1990)
On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss (1989)
On a Hymnsong of Robert Lowry (1993)
On a Southern Hymnsong (1993)
On an American Spiritual (1991)
On Ancient Hymns and Festal Dances (1988)
On the Cul-de-sac, Three O’clock, Friday Afternoon (1999)
On the Grand Prairie Texas (1989)
On the Overland Stage to El Paso (2006)
One Day in a Small Town (2004)
Otserf II : Revenge of the Warrior Prince (2009)
Partita Allegro (1997)
The Peasant Village Dance (1990)
Praises! (2001)
Prairie Dances (1998)
Prelude and Presto (2018)
Prelude and Rondo (1976)
The Pride of Buxmont (2000)
Providence Unfinished (2002)
Quiet River (2011)
Reagan of Illinois (2011)
Reagan of Illinois Part II (2013)
Riding With the Frontier Battalion (2000)
Scaling the North Wall (1990)
Scootin’ on Hardrock (1999)
Scrappy Bumptoe’s Picture Cards and Ragtag Diary (1981)
Sinfonia Voci (1993)
Solemn Hymn & Rowdy Dance (2010)
Soliloquy (2020)
Some Give All (2016)
A Song of Moses (1999)
Summer to Fall: A Love Song (2006)
Symphonia Glorioso (2006)
Symphonic Movement (2000)
Texas Promenade (1999
Til His Hand Grew Tired and Froze to the Sword (2004)
To Live a Life Triumphant (2007)
To Tame the Perilous Skies (1990)
Von Grrrhart’s 613th Regimental March (1994)
The War Trilogy: 1971 (1999)
The White Rose (as arranger) (1917/)
Zinphonia (2017)

Resources

David Holsinger website Accessed 29 August 2021
Holsinger, D. (1999). Fantasy on a Gaelic Hymnsong [score]. TRN Music: Ruidoso, N.M.